Posted in Communication

Patriotic Treason

True Patriots Can Not be Silenced…No Silence, No Fear

In this 250th-anniversary year, the FCC, through its “Pledge America Campaign,” is encouraging broadcasters to air more “patriotic, pro-America,” “positive,” “uplifting” non-critical programming celebrating our national story. On its face, it sounds harmless, even unifying. No one says criticism is forbidden in this campaign. Still, when a regulatory agency that controls broadcast licenses asks for “pro-American” and “uplifting” messaging, the subtext seems clear—celebrate, don’t scrutinize. But it raises an uncomfortable question: isn’t one of America’s greatest strengths the freedom to question our myths, challenge our institutions, and resist messaging that feels more like image management than truth-telling?

A healthy nation should not fear scrutiny; it should welcome it. We do not grow weaker by examining our history from multiple angles. We grow wiser. We stand taller when we are willing to look not only at the victors’ triumphs, but also at the suffering of the defeated, the excluded, and the conveniently forgotten.

Patriotism that cannot tolerate criticism is not confidence; it is insecurity dressed up as ceremony.

We should be honest about what troubles many Americans today. When institutions redact, conceal, and protect the powerful while exposing the vulnerable, we should call it what it is: a cover-up. When the history of slavery is sanitized, minimized, or rewritten, that is not a nation maturing—it is a nation lying to itself. And when a country suppresses the weak and demeans others for gain, it is not ascending. It is declining.

When citizens see voting access narrowed in some places, districts drawn to protect power rather than represent people, and public narratives shaped to flatter rather than inform, they do not feel united. They feel managed—manipulated. They begin to doubt the message’s legitimacy, no matter how many flags are wrapped around it.

Still, this is not a voice against patriotism. It is a voice for a broader form of it.

We should be proud that many people in this country still protest peacefully, speak openly, and challenge policies they believe are unjust. That tradition is not a flaw in America; it is one of the few things that has consistently made America worth admiring. Our best moments have not come from silence or obedience. They have come when ordinary people insisted that the country live up to its own promises and that power be held legally accountable.

That is not treason. That is citizenship. That is patriotism.

Treason is not dissent. Treason is the quiet surrender of conscience—the nodding along to cover-ups, cruelty, and convenient historical rewriting because it feels safer or easier. Patriotism is not taking your hat off on cue, reciting the Pledge by rote, or consuming approved “pro-American” programming and songs. Patriotism is telling the truth about who we are and who we have been. Real patriotism is hard. It asks us to love the country enough to tell it the truth.

And truth includes this: we have made mistakes, some of them grave. We are not diminished by admitting it. We are diminished by pretending otherwise. A nation grows stronger when it knows its history fully, speaks honestly about its failures, and chooses, again and again, to do better. We become stronger still when we can say, without fear or excuse, that we’ve been wrong, but we’ll be better.         NeverFearTheDream   simplebender.com

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Federal Communications Commission. “Chairman Carr Announces Pledge America Campaign.” Federal Communications Commission, 20 Feb. 2026, docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-418890A1.pdf


Lap Around the Sun: Daily Steps Forward
by WCBarron

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Joy in Alzheimer’s: My Mom’s Brave Walk into Dementia’s Abyss
by WCBarron

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A form of this article was first published on 3/10/26 in the Bend Bulletin

Posted in Current Events

Spin of War — Opportunistic Diversion

Operation Epstein Fury

There’s a common tactic governments use when they want the advantages of war without the drawbacks of the word. They don’t declare war; they call it an “operation.” It’s not conquest; it’s prevention. Not aggression; it’s protection. Not a choice; it’s a necessity.

Russia attacks Ukraine and calls it a “special military operation,” framing it as forced self-defense — claiming to protect threatened people, prevent danger, purge “Naziism,” and “demilitarize” a neighbor that supposedly left Moscow with “no other option.” Those phrases aren’t analysis; they’re anesthetic. They’re designed to make violence seem like a matter of hygiene.

Then came the blessing. The Russian Orthodox hierarchy portrayed the conflict as a spiritual struggle against a decadent West — a defensive moral crusade, not merely a geopolitical choice. When a state recruits sacred language, it isn’t seeking God’s guidance. It’s seeking immunity.

The U.S. is now running the same playbook in Iran. Officials sell “objectives,” not wars — missiles, proxies, a nuclear pathway — carefully described as controlled, and nothing like all previous “open-ended” American disasters. The invasion was essential to protect against an impending, not imminent, threat, to hold the radical Islamic regime at bay, and annihilate their military. The branding changes to suit the audience; the psychology doesn’t. You’re still being asked to feel reassured by a label and comforted by the phrase “proactive act.”

But the script becomes darker. The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) reports having received hundreds of complaints from service members claiming commanders justified the Iran campaign as “God’s plan,” invoking Revelation, end times, and Armageddon itself.[1][2][3][4] That isn’t faith. It’s propaganda wearing faith’s clothing.

Armageddon is not a marketing theme or a recruitment slogan. It is the ultimate condemnation of human rulers who confuse power with righteousness. Inserting the Second Coming into strike briefings doesn’t sanctify the policy — it desecrates the text. And framing any sitting leader in messianic terms isn’t patriotism. It’s an admission: that the case for war cannot stand on honest ground, so it must be propped up by manufactured revelation.

The spin is consistent even when the players change. What varies is the packaging — “momentum,” “dominance,” “inevitability” — language engineered to make aggression feel like physics rather than choice. If the timing of the Iran campaign was shaped as much by domestic political pressure as by genuine security necessity, then what is being sold as strategy may be closer to spectacle. It is a diversion substituting urgency for accountability. This is the next most hazardous and heinous stage of “Operation Epstein Fury.”

When religious fervor is added to that mix, the cynicism becomes complete. It is no longer merely policy dressed as necessity. There is nothing sacred or honorable in that — and the willingness to go there tells you everything about the strength of the underlying case. It bolsters an ego while others die. It is policy and self-preservation masquerading as prophecy.  NeverFearTheDream     simplebender.com


Lap Around the Sun: Daily Steps Forward
by WCBarron

Buy at Amazon Buy at Barnes & Noble Buy at Books2Read

Joy in Alzheimer’s: My Mom’s Brave Walk into Dementia’s Abyss
by WCBarron

Buy at Amazon Buy at Barnes & Noble Buy at Books2Read

Footnotes references :

  1. Military Religious Freedom Foundation, “MRFF Inundated with Complaints of Gleeful Commanders Telling Troops Iran War is ‘Part of God’s Divine Plan’ to Usher in the Return of Jesus Christ,” March 3, 2026.
  2. Military Religious Freedom Foundation, “Unit combat readiness briefing and Armageddon,” MRFF’s Inbox, March 3, 2026 (complaint dated March 2, 2026; includes the “all part of God’s divine plan” wording and Revelation/Armageddon references).
  3. Sara Braun, “US troops were told war on Iran was ‘all part of God’s divine plan’, watchdog alleges,” The Guardian, March 3, 2026 (last modified March 5, 2026).
  4. Cornell University Media Relations Office (Cornell Chronicle Tip Sheet), “End-times rhetoric in US military ‘didn’t infiltrate, was invited in’,” March 4, 2026 (summarizes MRFF’s reported complaints and the “God’s plan for Armageddon” framing).